Mt Takao

What the guides say about Mt Takao

Summer is when Tokyo's department stores open their rooftop beer gardens, all-you-can-drink tables under festoon lighting with the city humming below. Most run from late spring to September, and they're one of the most pleasantly local things you can do on a hot evening. The other classic escape is altitude. Mt Takao, about 50 minutes from Shinjuku, has a beer garden beside the upper cable car station, cooler air included (details in the Mount Takao guide). It's the easiest of the day trips from Tokyo and the one that suits summer best.

28. Mt Takao. The locals' mountain. Under an hour from Shinjuku, a cable car if you want it, tororo soba and dango on the way up. On a clear winter day Fuji fills the horizon from the summit.

Mount Takao is a real mountain, 599 metres of cedar forest, temple steps and ridge trail, and it's one train ride from Shinjuku with no transfers. That's why it's counted among the most-climbed mountains in the world, and why Tokyo residents treat it as a standing option rather than an expedition. A free Sunday, a clear morning, an afternoon that needs air. It's pinned on the Tokyo travel map, and the place page for Mt Takao has the practical details at a glance.